Russell Brand's defence barrister has referred himself to the Bar Standards Board after confronting a journalist outside court moments after his client was convicted of rape and sexual assault.
Ian Winter KC approached Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, whose 2023 investigation led to Brand's victims coming forward, outside Southwark Crown Court on Thursday afternoon. He told her: "I hope you are pleased with yourself."
Ms Urwin replied: "I'm pleased justice has been done", before Mr Winter said: "Well, it wasn't. You f***** it." He added: "Congratulations," with a group of journalists watching on.
Barrister's self-report to regulator
In a statement issued on Friday lunchtime, Mr Winter said he had reported himself to the Bar Standards Board, his professional regulator.
He said: "Having seen the ways matters have been characterised in today's press I consider my professional duty requires me to self-report those allegations to the Bar Standards Board, so the matter can be subject to proper scrutiny. I have made such a report."
The exchange took place after a jury found Brand guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault at the conclusion of a four-week trial. Brand had denied all charges and argued through his lawyer that he had been wrongly accused and was the victim of a media conspiracy to bring him down.
Sunday Times editor defends journalist
Speaking on Times Radio after the incident, Ben Taylor, editor of The Sunday Times, defended Ms Urwin, the newspaper's chief news correspondent.
He said: "I found what Mr Winter did quite extraordinary. I have never seen or heard of a barrister behaving in this way.
"There's a really serious point here, which is that it was not Ros who found Russell Brand guilty at Southwark Crown Court. It was a jury of eight men and four women who have sat through this case.
"They've listened to the evidence, they've listened to the defence, and they have gone away and they've come back with some very considered verdicts.
"By impugning Ros' integrity, what Mr Winter is doing, and he should really be called to account for this, he's impugning the integrity of the entire case.
"He's impugning the integrity of a jury, a system that we support massively at The Sunday Times, and we have actually campaigned to protect, who have sat there solemnly and done their duty, and the judge who oversaw the case and everybody else involved. I think what he did was reprehensible."
Trial background and sentencing
During the trial, Mr Winter argued that reporting of allegations against Brand by Ms Urwin and others had "poisoned the well" and made a fair trial impossible. The trial judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, dismissed an attempt by Brand to block the trial because of negative media coverage.
In a pre-trial argument, Brand, through Mr Winter, had also accused the journalists who first exposed him as a sexual predator of being "criminals", suggesting their reporting in 2023 had made a fair trial impossible and that they may have committed the crime of perverting the course of justice. The judge rejected that attempt, ruling that Brand could simply be tried by people who had not seen the previous media reporting.
Brand, 51, was convicted of raping a 21-year-old fan in 2009 and sexually assaulting three women in separate incidents between 2004 and 2009. He is in custody and due to be sentenced on Monday.
